10th year of Chongzhen, November 27.

Boryeong Province, Zitong County.

Zitong, in the southwest of Boryeong Province.

If you want to enter Chengdu from Boryeong, you must pass through Zitong County.

On the Nanguan Road in Zitong County, the sound of endless tremors echoed in the fields on the outskirts of the city, which was the sound of soldiers and war horses marching quickly.

From Hanzhong Prefecture to the southwest of Baoning Prefecture in the territory of Zitong County, it is necessary to cross the two mountain passes of Qipan and Chaotian.

Along the way, the mountain is high and the road is narrow, rugged and difficult, and the road twists and turns for nearly a thousand miles, even if it takes eight or nine days to reach it even if it is a hundred miles a day.

It was not a problem for cavalry to travel hundreds of miles a day, but it was a great problem for infantry, especially those who carried a lot of baggage.

But at present, Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, is in an emergency, and Cao Wenzhao ordered a light army to march lightly, abandoning a large amount of baggage, but it still took nearly 20 days to arrive in Zitong County.

The difficulty of the mountain road is far greater than that of the flat road, and even if the mountain road is steep, even if it is light and simple, it can only travel more than thirty or forty miles a day.

The south gate of Zitong County had been opened at this time, and truckloads of military rations were being transported out by the people.

All the grain along the way was transported from the nearest counties.

The drought has not yet reached Sichuan, and the counties of Sichuan have sufficient food, and officials in various localities have also received orders to cooperate with the army as much as possible.

But now there is also a certain food crisis.

In the south of Zitong County, under a makeshift wooden shed.

Cao Wenzhao frowned, looking at the map placed on the desktop in front of him.

On the tabletop, in addition to the town stone, there is also a rather ornately decorated clairvoyant.

This pair of clairvoyant mirrors was naturally given to Cao Wenzhao by Chen Wang.

Chen Wang bought a total of five clairvoyant telescopes, all of which were monoculars.

Three of them are large clairvoyant mirrors, which are mainly used for sea lookouts, and the observation distance is longer and longer, so they need to be erected or erected on people's shoulders.

The other two are small telescopes, which are closer to the distance, but they are convenient and fast.

Of the large clairvoyant mirrors, Chen Wang kept one for himself, and the other two, one for Hong Chengchou and the other for Sun Chuanting.

Cao Wenzhao often took the lead in leading troops in battle, and rarely stood on the lookout or sat in the Chinese army.

So Chen Wang gave Cao Wenzhao a portable small clairvoyant mirror.

Chen Wang and Cao Dingjiao stood on Cao Wenzhao's side on the left and right, and the rest of the guards were guarding the surroundings of the wooden shed.

Mianzhou had already been attacked by Li Zicheng more than ten days ago, and it had already become a ruin, where could it be supplied with any food.

To be precise, most of Chengdu is now in the midst of war.

The number of people under Li Zicheng's command has now swelled to 150,000, and the situation in Sichuan is actually completely out of control.

The thieves occupied the city of Wei east of Mianzhou, camped around the mountains, and camped for thirty miles, completely blocking the road into Chengdu Prefecture.

The troops led by Hong Chengchou had just arrived in Wenxian County and had not yet entered Sichuan Province.

Hou Liangzhu and Cao Bianjiao were outnumbered and wanted to break through Mianzhou, but they were powerless after all.

It is difficult for Qiao women to cook without rice, and they have no way to defeat the more than 100,000 troops stationed in Mianzhou with more than 4,000 people.

Chen Wang stood beside Cao Wenzhao, and his gaze stayed on the map on the desktop.

Li Zicheng did not enter Sichuan through Qipanguan, but from Wenxian.

The current situation is completely out of control, completely out of the original process, and history is becoming unrecognizable.

Hou Liangzhu is not dead, and Qipanguan is not lost, but the current situation is even worse.

Chen Wang was very sure that he had no mistakes or omissions, and in the original time and space, Li Zicheng had not set up defenses in Mianzhou.

Li Zicheng's movements are already unpredictable, and everything has gone out of the original process......

On 25 November, two days earlier, Li Zicheng had already led his troops to the northern suburbs of Chengdu......

……

Wenxian County is named after the county after the ancient Wenzhou text.

It is located at the junction of Shaanxi Province and Sichuan Province, and is located in the Qinba Mountains.

When it comes to Wenxian, there may be many people who feel strange.

But when it comes to its other name, it should be clear to many people.

A thousand years ago, when the three-legged tripod was established, it was called "Yin Ping".

It was from this that Wei general Deng Ai went all the way south, walked hundreds of miles of dangerous roads, and went all the way to Jiangyou Pass.

Ma Miao, the defender of Shu Han, faced the Wei army that fell from the sky, and was terrified and chose to switch and surrender.

Deng Ai then led the army all the way south, conquered Mianzhu, and reached the outskirts of Chengdu, where Liu Chan, the queen of Shu Han, surrendered, and Shu Han perished.

And the route taken by Li Zicheng now is the route taken by Deng Ai when he entered Shu.

After thousands of years of development, the road to Shu is no longer as steep as in the past, and many places have opened up a lot.

Li Zicheng did not encounter the problems that Deng Ai had encountered, he led more than 6,000 elite cavalry and more than 20,000 horse troops all the way south through Wenxian.

A thousand years ago, Deng Ai smuggled into Shu from Yinping and arrived in Mianzhou, the main force of Shu Han led by Jiang Wei was in Guangyuan.

And this time, Li Zicheng broke Pingwu first, Kejiangyou later, and when the soldiers came to the city of Mianzhou, Hou Liangzhu and Cao Bianjiao were also around Guangyuan.

The former Jiang Wei was pinned down by the main force of the Wei army led by Zhong Hui and could not rush south to help in time, although Hou Liangzhu and Cao Bianjiao were not in the same situation.

However, it is more than 400 miles from Guangyuan to Mianzhou, and it takes at least ten days to arrive at the high mountain and the road is far along the way.

It's as if history is repeating itself.

Li Zicheng, like Deng Ai, easily broke through Mianzhou, and then went all the way south to the northern suburbs of Chengdu.

At the beginning, Deng Ai faced the mediocre and incompetent Shu Han queen Liu Chan.

And now Li Zicheng is facing the equally incompetent Sichuan governor Wang Weizhang.

The originally prosperous and lively city of Chengdu is extremely lonely at this time.

On the city wall, a large number of Ming soldiers stood on it with ordnance in their hands.

But the weapons in their hands did not give them much security.

Their faces were filled with fear, and all of them looked nervously out of the city.

Outside the city, the sky was full of smoke and dust, and the dense intruders were like locusts, which had completely covered the fields of the northern suburbs.

"It's over......"

Wang Weizhang stood at the position of the battlement, looking at the intruding army from the brigade outside the city, his face was pale and trembling.

If it weren't for the attendants, I am afraid that I would have collapsed on the ground.

Wang Weizhang only thought that Hou Liangzhu and Cao Bianjiao had been defeated, and Li Zicheng had attacked all the way from Qipanguan, and he never thought that Li Zicheng had made a detour from Long'an Mansion.

If Chengdu is broken, he will inevitably bear the name of trapping the city and losing his land, and become a sinner through the ages.

At this time, there were less than 4,000 soldiers in the city of Chengdu, but the army outside the city was beyond sight, and the mountains and fields were as vast as a sea of smoke, how not to make people tremble?

As the governor, Wang Weizhang was in a mess and lost his mind, and it was naturally difficult for other people to remain indifferent.

The elite soldiers were all taken to Guangyuan by Hou Liangzhu, and only a few soldiers remained in Chengdu.

Now there are more than 4,000 soldiers in Chengdu, many of whom are temporarily transferred from the guards, where do they have any combat strength.

Panic spread like a plague in the city.

But fortunately, no matter how cowardly Wang Weizhang is, no matter how cowardly he is, Wang Weizhang still did not choose to surrender Kaicheng like Liu Chan.

It's not that I don't want to, but I don't dare.

Chengdu is where the Yamen of the Sichuan Political Envoy is located, and the King of Shu is also sealed in Chengdu.

Trapped in the city and lost the land, his relatives were killed, no matter what kind of responsibility, he couldn't bear the responsibility.

The remnants of his sanity made Wang Weizhang still support everything, and he knew that once he surrendered, he would be completely nailed to the pillar of shame in history, and even his family and relatives would be implicated by it.

……

Li Zicheng's eyes were deep, looking at the city of Chengdu standing in the southern wilderness.

Along the way, even breaking the cities, all the news proved that there were not many soldiers in Chengdu City, and most of the elite were taken by Hou Liangzhu to Baoning Mansion in northern Sichuan.

Chengdu City seems to be ready for a war......

"Woo————"

The suburbs of Chengdu are full of swords and guns.

With the sound of a low horn, a large number of hungry soldiers carrying rudimentary siege equipment rushed towards Chengdu like a tide.

In the rear of the hungry soldiers, there is a team of horses that are constantly wandering, and the dense banners are one after another, spreading to the rear, with no end in sight.

The black oppressive men and horses seem to have spread all the way to the end of heaven and earth......

Looking down from the clouds in the sky, dense black ants almost crawled all over the northern city walls of Chengdu City.

From the top of the city, the smoke and dust were billowing below, and the crowd was surging, and the shouts of killing shook the sky.

All in sight are hungry soldiers with their heads wrapped in various turbans and wearing various robes.

……

"Big brother, there are only more than 4,000 people in Chengdu, and most of the defenders are guards, so a strong attack may not be impossible to capture?!"

Liu Zongmin's eyes narrowed, his eyes flashed with a fierce light, and he said in an urn.

He couldn't understand why Chengdu City was so close, but Li Zicheng didn't want to capture Chengdu.

The current offensive seems to be huge, but in reality it is a lot of wind and rain.

The siege of the city was full of newly attached hungry soldiers, and there was not much combat power at all.

With these hungry soldiers, how could it be possible to capture Chengdu?

Li Zicheng glanced sideways slightly, glanced at Liu Zongmin, who was beside him, and then glanced at the generals around him.

The other generals also had doubts on their faces, and they also had the same doubts as Liu Zongmin.

Li Zicheng sighed secretly in his heart, feeling a little powerless in his heart, no one could understand what he was thinking.

These generals under his command have followed him all the way to the south and the north for many years, but they still haven't made much progress.

"What can you do when you lay down Chengdu?"

Li Zicheng raised his horsewhip, looked around at the generals beside him, and asked in a deep voice.

Liu Zongmin was stunned when he was asked Li Zicheng's question, and the construction of the city was naturally to recruit young people, collect military funds, and collect military rations......

"Lay down Chengdu...... Laying down the ...... of Chengdu"

Li Zicheng's gaze did not stay on Liu Zongmin's body, but looked at the group of soldiers who were constantly marching on his side.

There was no change in his face, and there was not much emotional fluctuation in his eyes.

"Not to mention whether we can win Chengdu, even if we really do win Chengdu, now for us, there is no benefit at all."

"Now we have almost 150,000 people under our command, and it is enough for the military to loot so many cities, and many things cannot be taken away, or even burned."

Chengdu is nothing more than chicken ribs for them.

It's a pity to discard it.

Sichuan is mountainous, and the state and county and Tusi stand side by side, and the relationship between them is complex, and many problems are difficult to solve, which is not suitable as a foundation.

Sichuan is not a place to live for a long time, Sichuan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, rich in products, fertile land, and seems to be a treasure land.

But it is difficult to enter Shu, and it is difficult to get out of Shu, even if it is as wise as Zhuge Wuhou, it is difficult to succeed.

Li Zicheng doesn't think that he is smarter than Zhuge Liang, he knows his ability.

And even if he can capture Chengdu, there is no way to occupy Chengdu and control Shu.

Li Zicheng has watched "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and he knows very well that this time he led the troops from Wenxian all the way south to cross the interception of officers and soldiers.

Now those officers and soldiers are probably like Jiang Wei in history, and they are frantically rushing towards Chengdu to help.

Moreover, the situation in Shu at this time in Sichuan was not the same as thousands of years ago, when most of the soldiers in Shu Han were almost on the front line, and there were not many soldiers and horses left behind in the rear.

And now Sichuan Province is only empty in northern Sichuan, and there are still a large number of troops in southern Sichuan, western Sichuan, and eastern Sichuan.

The troops in southern and eastern Sichuan are probably already assembling and rushing to Chengdu to help.

Northern Sichuan is the main force of officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou.

Officers and soldiers came from three sides, and if they really occupied Chengdu, it would be tantamount to asking for their own death.

"Chengdu just seems empty."

Li Zicheng shook his head, Chengdu looks like it can be fought in a battle, but in fact, if you want to capture Chengdu, it is tantamount to a fool's dream.

Deng Ai smuggled through Yinping, but in fact did not capture Chengdu, it was Liu Chan's surrender that led to the final demise of Shu Han.

Now Wang Weizhang in Chengdu City is even more unbearable than Liu Chan, they are all the way south, but they dare not send a soldier and horse out of the city to fight, but they do not show the slightest intention of surrendering.

The city of Chengdu is strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, no better than those states and counties that were captured by them along the road.

Nowadays, they don't have any large siege equipment in their army, and they don't even have much time to make siege ladders.

Even if he really ordered the horse team to attack strongly, he might not be able to capture Chengdu.

Li Zicheng stopped, his eyes were still on the city of Chengdu in the south, but his mind had been elsewhere.

He never wanted to conquer Chengdu, nor did he want to occupy Sichuan, and everything he was doing now was to achieve his other goal......

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province, and the King of Shu lives in Chengdu.

Chengdu was besieged, and the officers and soldiers were bound to fall into madness.

The responsibility of losing their relatives, whether it is Hong Chengchou or Sun Chuanting, they can't afford it.

I am afraid that the officers and soldiers in Shaanxi are now frantically converging towards Sichuan.

If the officers and men of Shaanxi have all entered Sichuan, the defensive strength of the officers and men in Shaanxi will inevitably be unprecedentedly weak......

(End of chapter)